


Bite

by FrogFacey



Series: Garrison's Dream Team [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A thesaurus search of the word 'pain' was used, Also a way too detailed insight to the aesthetic and use of vampire fangs, I like accuracy god dammit, M/M, Unrelated but Keith gets picked up a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-02 02:57:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14535174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrogFacey/pseuds/FrogFacey
Summary: Keith’s grumble was cut short by another surge of pain, this time through his jaw and up through his skull. He let his mouth hang open and retched, much like he was going to throw up. Nothing came, but he seemed unable to do much else.-Set just after Keith gets his ass kicked by a vampire-





	Bite

**Author's Note:**

> This ritual is completely made up  
> I google translated Latin  
> Do not use in case of emergency

Keith was getting real tired of darkness. It happened every now and then when his body powered down after doing too much.

He was running on low battery right now, any wrong move sent everything crashing down and he’d be plunged back into darkness for another few hours.

He felt, rather than heard the familiar rumble of the van’s old engine. He was lying down and they were driving.

“Keith’s awake again.” Lance mumbled from somewhere.

Keith was lying in Lance’s lap. Slowly but surely he became more and more aware of the fingers combing through his hair.

He had learned from experience that talking drained all of his energy. He settled for making a kind of mumbly-groany sound of affirmation.

Lance shushed him which would have been rude if not for the fact that Keith’s headache was getting worse.

Hunk said something about something, kind of worriedly. Pidge confirmed whatever it was he said with a similar sound.

“What are you guys talking about?” He wanted to say. Instead what came out was more of a distressed whine.

“We’ll be there soon.” Lance said, instead of answering his question.

They’ll be where soon? Were they going to find more vampires because Keith wasn’t sure he’d be up to that, him just staying in the van would be dangerous. They didn’t have enough for a hotel and they didn’t have any friends around the area as far as he could tell from the town names he’d caught in moments of consciousness.

“Keith, buddy? You doing okay back there?” Hunk asked, Keith didn’t have to look to see that he was doing the stressed out leg bouncy-lip bitey combo that made driving more stressful.

He would have rolled his eyes if it didn’t hurt to do so. He couldn’t talk, his leg was mauled and his entire body felt like it was made of lead. On a scale of one to ten he was doing pretty fuckin’ peachy.

He drifted his focus back to Lance’s fingers scratching gently against his scalp. That was nicer.

He was lucky he was lying on Lance rather than someone like Pidge, who would probably spend the whole time jittering out of stress. Not that Lance wasn't doing that, she just had a tendency to visibly vibrate.

His brain supplied him with the time that Lance had been bitten, Hunk had come screaming to Keith who at the time was a near stranger. He remembered how Pidge’s hands were shaking as she sat, doubled over in his bed, pale and only speaking in either small sounds or screaming.

He remembered how he had scooped the unconscious Lance into his arms, they'd met formally only four times beforehand. He watched helplessly as Pidge shook and Hunk tried to call for help, not realising that the only help came from the payphone a mile away.

Keith frowned a little, turning his head to lean into Lance's touch.

It was the same payphone where he’d talked to Shiro for the last time.

It was like any other night, Shiro talked about school and Keith talked about whatever lizard he saw on the way home. 

He’d mentioned something or other about vampires and Keith had laughed, telling him not to lose interest and leave Matt for whatever Edward or Bella struck his fancy on the trip. Shiro laughed and told him not to worry, he’d be fine and come back fine and everything would be fine.

The next day the cops had been called, apparently the poor cleaner had heard screaming in his apartment. The room had been trashed, there were upturned tables, bloodstains of the ceiling and claw marks on the walls.

It wasn't even on the news.

Keith had been the first to come, obviously. He’d told the police everything he knew and had to get Matt to come get him from a jail cell for threatening to punch the officer.

One of the first times he’d met Lance he’d mentioned something casually about how he'd heard all the gross details from his uncle who was working on the case. About what they thought had happened, all the signs of the fight he’d put up, the chances of surviving what they thought had been a stabbing.

He hadn't realised he was talking to Keith, the one who’s only friend and stand in parental figure was on all accounts, dead. Not just Keith from physics.

“You alright there buddy? You're making weird noises.” Lance tugged very gently at his hair, he did that sometimes when he wanted to get his attention. It was kind of annoying.

Keith opened his eyes, he was met with a blurry concerned Lance.

“Stop thinking so hard.” He said, Keith closed his eyes again.

Of course, he’d apologised the next time they’d met. He only realised when he saw Keith's face on the school newsletter. He’d won a recent martial arts competition, though they had the nerve to say he’d only joined to take out the deep rooted anger one gets after being told the person you're closest to is missing.

He was jolted back to reality by another, slightly sharper tug at his hair.

“Keith, you're making me anxious.” Lance’s voice was very small, “Can you look at me please? I know you're thinking about something bad.”

Keith looked up and him and Lance wiped away some of the tears on his cheeks.

He didn't even realise his eyes had been watering.

“I think,” Pidge said, leaning back over the front seat, “It would be best if you went back to sleep.”

“Fuck you.” Keith rasped. Then the car began spinning.

“Jesus fuck.” He added, moving his palms to dig into his eyeballs.

“Are you okay?” Lance whispered. Maybe it was whispering, it was very loud.

“No.” He rolled his head further into Lance's thigh.

Oh fuck not again.

He watched, as detestfully as one could as the world grew darker.

“Oh hey. He’s already doing it.” Pidge said, distantly.

“Get fucked.” He managed.

Then he was out.

 

Keith was pretty sure he hadn't been asleep for long.

He was still lying down, though it was more plush than the van seats or Lance's leg.

He was lying on a bed.

He could tell from the fact that he could feel something warm wrapped around him. It wasn't bony like Lance and he couldn't hear any snoring so it wasn't Hunk. 

He would have rolled over if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't feel his leg.

Keith slowly opened his eyes. There was nothing all that interesting, just a white ceiling. Or wall, depending.

He tilted his head to the right. Yep, he was currently looking at the wall. He could see a bedside table and a chair. No windows though.

He turned his focus back up to the ceiling and thought. He wondered if he was here alone, had the others gone to go find supplies? Were they out stabbing more vampires? 

Keith sighed and sat up.

Then he had to do a double take because he had just sat up, something he hadn't been able to do for...However long he’d been asleep.

He pushed the blankets off of himself and inspected his leg. It was all still there and Hunk had dressed it. He breathed a slightly lame sigh of relief 

He stayed where he was and looked around a little more. There was a glass half filled with water, it was probably dusty judging from how long it felt like he’d been asleep.

He didn’t feel like getting up yet, he wasn’t exactly sure if his leg was up to walking just yet, he wasn’t going to risk it.

He sighed and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. He contemplated going back to sleep. If nothing interesting was happening right now he didn’t really see the point in staying awake.

He sighed again, louder out of general detestment towards his current situation and rubbed the back of his neck. 

Keith let his hand slowly fall, as it did he passed something that felt familiar. Sickeningly familiar.

He sucked in a long, shaky breath and tried to clear his head. He dragged his thoughts back, had the vampire gotten to him? Had Keith passed out without realising and given the vampire the perfect opportunity to bite him?

No, he’d been conscious the whole time and it hadn’t gotten close enough to get his neck. 

He pulled his hand away and stared at the bloody smudges left on his palms. 

The thing that first shocked him about vampires was their fangs. Most media lead him to believe that they had human teeth and elongated canines. But he found, through a lot of researching and going “oh that reminds me of something I saw” that vampire teeth were a lot like the teeth on a big cat. They were carnivores afterall.

Though he could tell where the stereotype came from, on a big cat the teeth would be more spaced out, you can see everything when a lion opens its mouth. To accommodate for the lack of space in a human’s mouth, a vampire’s teeth would have to be pressed closer together, leaving only the longer canines and blunt front teeth visible. The rest of the teeth were smaller, but still as sharp.

In short, yes, there was a vampire bite on his neck.

He was lucky that it was only a bite, his leg was enough proof of the power that vampires had.

His hand was shaking and he didn’t realise that his breathing was shallow until he tried to take a deep breath and he found himself in pain.

He had been bitten. Chances were whatever diseases had been festering on it’s teeth were now in his bloodstream. Maybe, maybe somehow he’d been turned. Maybe he’d slept through the side-effects and maybe he’d have to spend the rest of his life drinking blood and sitting in the shadows.

Shiro would never be able to face him again, he’d be cast out. Lance would understand but there would be no way they’d be able to provide for both of them.

He’d be alone.

God, he’d die alone.

He screamed when he felt hands on his shoulders, they were strong and warm, holding him in place. 

“Woah, calm. Breathing, breathing.” It was Hunk. He took a deep breath to demonstrate 

Keith noted that the door had been opened, Hunk must have made his way in while he was freaking out.

He turned to face Hunk and he watched as his face fell a little. He could feel the blood trailing down his neck, it was concerning and a tad uncomfortable.

“I thought I cleaned that up.” He said in a very small voice.

His stomach did a fun little flip, making his head feel dizzy “What happened?”

Hunk opened his mouth, hesitated and then closed it again, taking his hands off of Keith’s shoulders hesitantly, “In general or…?”

He narrowed his eyes, shoving the blanket and standing up on his knees in an attempt to make himself look more threatening, “Who bit me?”

Hunk waved his arms around frantically, “He told me not to say anything, he knew this would happen.”

Keith wasn’t really the kind of person to hurt his friends out of pure malice, sure he’d punched Pidge once or twice but that was only to help on a job and there had been no hard feelings. But right now Keith couldn’t do anything but push Hunk out of the way and slam the door behind him as he stormed down the hallway.

He was talking about Lance, of fucking course he was talking about Lance. 

They had an agreement, in life or death situations Lance could use whatever vampiric healing properties he had. This usually meant being gross and him licking wounds, sometimes they performed the rituals Pidge had found in an old book her Grandma had given her (The first time they tried this they had read something wrong that left Hunk translucent and unable to interact with anything, but he wasn’t covered in vampire bites and in pain anymore) but in terms of healing, biting was strictly off limits. 

As much as they all trusted him, there was always the chance that he could slip back into the murder crazed, bloodthirsty mindset he’d spent too long trying to get out of, he could take too much, something could go wrong and he’d turn someone.  
Keith doubled over, his shoulder hit the wall and he slid down to the floor, curling up on himself in pain.

His throat burned, his leg ached and his head was spinning.

“Lance I’ll fucking kill you.” He rasped.

The hallway stretched on and on, the ends seeming dark and distant. 

He cried out, his nails digging into his arms so hard he could feel himself breaking skin.

He choked out some mixture of swears and insults through gritted teeth, scrunching his eyes shut to try and distract himself.

“Keith!” 

He had never felt so happy and so angered by Lance’s stupid voice. He opened his eyes and was met with long, surprisingly caring legs.

“Keith, Jesus Christ are you okay? What happened?”

He would have rolled his eyes if he could, “Does it look like I’m okay?”

Lance made some kind of angry/stressed noise and crouched down. Keith watched ditestfully as his dumb, stupid, selfish face drifted into vision.

“I’ll pick you up, the couch is closest okay?”

Keith’s grumble was cut short by another surge of pain, this time through his jaw and up through his skull. He let his mouth hang open and retched, much like he was going to throw up. Nothing came, but he seemed unable to do much else.

His head jolted uncomfortably and Lance wrapped his arms around him, hoisting him up a little too violently for the situation at hand. Whatever complaint he had was drowned out by mindless babbles of distress.

He pressed his head into Lance shoulder, hoping somehow the force would push the pain out the back of his head so he could leave it in the hallway.

Motion sickness wasn’t something Keith often, but the combination of his brain floating off somewhere without him and Lance’s janky movements made his stomach swirl.

Finally he felt himself be set down, gently this time. He opened his eyes blearily and looked up at Lance as angrily as he could.

“What did you do to me?” He didn’t have the capability to yell, but he could tell from Lance’s face that the message got across. 

Lance looked panicked, he crouched down and skittered his hands around, his fingers always moving “There was so much blood...If I didn’t do anything you’d of...I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Did you try anything else?” Keith choked out.

Lance looked like he was going to make an argument, but his brain seemed to catch up with him “We...We talked.”

Keith didn't say anything, he just bit down another cry if pain.

“Keith, Keith look at me.”

He felt Lance’s hand cup his jaw, the sudden pressure made his vision go papery for a moment.

He opened his mouth weakly, Lance narrowed his eyes and ran one finger gently across his top row of teeth. It was weird and invasive but Keith didn't have the mindset to complain anymore.

“Pidge get the book!” He called down the hallway, hugging Keith closer to him.

“I'm going to fucking kill you.” Keith decided that he wasn't going to talk anymore, it tore up his throat and sounded too scratchy to be him.

Pidge clambered down the hallway, the giant book tucked under one arm and a bag in the other.

Hunk followed, carrying a handful of assorted candles.

Pidge set the book down on the floor with a hefty thump, opening it to a random page and flicking through it frantically.

“What's happening?” She asked, taking a candle from Hunk. She handed it it back to him when she saw that it was a half dead tea candle.

Keith yelped and Lance made some kind of distressed noise, she nodded and kept flipping.

Hunk crouched down next to the couch, assessing the situation. He pushed Keith's fringe out of his face and mumbled something array of colourful words.

Keith couldn't do anything but lie there and look detestfully at the whole scene. His pain had morphed into waves of freezing cold, through his head and throat and down his leg. He could feel himself shivering but he didn't want to pay much attention to it.

“Found it!” Pidge yelled, pinning the pages down with her forearms so she could dig through her bag.

Hunk snapped into action, he grabbed his lighter and placed the candles around everyone, lighting every one in turn.

Pidge grabbed an assortment of dried herbs, she chanted as she crushed them together in her palms. She shifted so that she was sitting, her thigh holding the book open.

“Eat this.” She grumbled, thrusting her palm towards Lance.

“Per osculum tibi respirare vitae huius.” She said, and nodded towards Lance.

“Per osculum tibi respirare vitae huius.” Lance mumbled, through a mouthful of herbs.

“Per osculum tibi respirare vitae huius.” Keith said through a gasp.

Lance pulled Keith closer and pressed their lips together.

Hunk blew out each candle, the pain was pulled up and through his mouth, along with any air he had left. He fell backwards from the force of it all, gasping for air. 

He watched as Lance convulsed for a moment, cringing from the sudden rush of pain. He collapsed against the side of the couch, his breathing shallow.

“Lance, holy shit are you okay?” Hunk asked, sitting up from his place on the floor.

Lance twitched and then gasped, sitting bolt upright. He coughed and stared, wide eyed at the room around him and then laughed. Probably a reflex from shock.

“Don’t you ever fucking do that again.” He pointed accusingly at Keith, “Next time you storm some vampire take us with you.”

“Don’t turn me while trying to save my life then maybe we can come to an agreement.” He sat up, enjoying the freedom of not being weak or in pain. The bite mark would scar, but that was an issue for another time.

Keith looked around, his eyes followed the lounge room wall until he met Hunk’s worried glance.

“Where are we?” He asked, “It can’t be a hotel.”

Hunk laughed a little awkwardly “About that…” 

The walls looked familiar to him, they were white but he recognised the shade. The layout too, he knew everything about this place.

“Shiro’s apartment was empty. People were cautious to come here.” Pidge said, slamming her book shut.

Lance made a sort of ‘don’t say anything. Oh too late’ face and winced in the general direction of Keith.

“They didn’t want to mention it.” She gestured towards Hunk and Lance.

Keith didn’t know if he should be mad or not. What would he be mad at? He supposed he thought that his house would be left as it was, bloody and broken. Though they would have had to put it back to normal, logically they couldn’t leave it like that. 

But the apartment still looked lived in. That’s what angered him the most. It was meant to look cold and empty, it was meant to make him feel like he was stupid for thinking Shiro could still be here, that his dreams were separate from the tiny world he lived in.

But it looked the same as the last time he was there, having lunch save for the dust and cobwebs.

“This was the only place we could find.” Lance said, shifting that he was more curled in on himself.

“It’s fine.” Keith said.

And it was fine, because it wasn’t their fault.

He stood up and looked around the lounge room and the kitchen. Everything was still in its place.

“Where’s my shit?” He asked, making his way towards the table.

“In the van.” Hunk said, carefully, maybe thinking Keith would snap at him again. This made his stomach twinge a little.

He ran his hand across the wood, Mat’s pizza stain was still there. He wondered if the dick Mat drew under the table was still there too, as far as he could tell Shiro hadn’t noticed it.

He was caught off guard by the splintered wood that caught his palm. Shiro was very firm on the fact that none of his furniture be damaged after he accidentally destroyed his couch once on a dare.

Keith crouched down, inspecting the damage. It couldn’t have been part of the attack, it felt too calculated to be claw marks.

“Holy shit.” He breathed, running his fingers over the marks, the words carved into the bottom of the table.

“What?” Lance stood up, Pidge followed.

“I think,” Keith said, hoisting the table over so he could read it properly, “We found our first big break.”

Downtown, the back room in the old pawn shop. Something, or someone was there.

Hunk clambered to his feet, “I’ll get the van.”


End file.
